Property Rights Of Women In Early Modern England

Based on the three stages of the women of early modern England, the article clarifies the actual distribution of property model.and reproduces most women's legal and practical contours of property rights, trying to demonstrate women how to circumvent the laws against them in practice and the extent to which the law practice had a divergence,and to make a analysis of the phenomenon.Article is divided into five parts.Introduction section describes the purposes of this article, research progress as well as several issues need to explain.ChapterI discusses a background of property law in early morden England.Early modern times, the five laws joinly govern property rights, that is,the common law, canon law, estate law and the Act of Parliament City.The five laws govern two basic types of property - real estate and real estate.Movable property, including money, debt, clothing, furniture, food.Land is divided into three types: free, public land and leasehold.The legal system governing property can be divided into related-marriage and inheritance-related.Also it introduces the two courts, equity courts and ecclesiastical courts.ChapterII discussed the property rights of unmarried girls.In Early Modern England, maintenance and education in the girl's property from their parents are almost the same with his brother.Her daughter's inheritance to the land is limited in some areas, but the parents will usually be compensated for the distribution of movable property, trying to ensure that each child's share of property. When daughters married, the parents usually prepare a dowry,its amount depending on the economic and social status of parents.ChapterIII Discusses the wife's property rights.After Marriage, the legal characteristics of the wife is gone.As the wife of asylum by her husband ,women's property into the marriage - her dowry, are in the husband's direct control.The situation is extremely detrimental to his wife in this case, marriage settlement came into being. Not only the wealthy bride , but also ordinary women use the marriage settlement to protect their property rights.ChapterIV details the widow's property rights. After her husband died, the wife regained his freedom and returned their legal status, again had their own property.Under normal circumstances, when a man died with will, his widow is usually designated as the executor, making her the main beneficiary; man dies intestate, the widow became the administrator of his property and the church gave her remaining personal property.This is a legal provides twice as much.However, probate documents prove that this is not the generosity of the Church and husbands to widows because the wife's dowry is equal or greater than the legacy leftby her husband.Finally, Conclusion summarizes the content and main points of this article once again. In early modern England,many of the common law provisions on women's property did not have much impact on the majority of ordinary social class women They actually have more property rights.The common law encountered resistance in practice because it is only the ruling class of the law,and did not reflect the interests of the majority.This tension between expression and the actual operation of the system constitutes the promotion of early modern English law momentum.